Ciao Italia : Molto Buono!

While talking on the phone with my dad today I realized how many times I have said "today has been the best day ever" since I have been in Italy. No day is quite like the other and I am constantly being exposed to so many things I have never seen or heard of...or maybe just did not take the time to stop and really appreciate them. I cannot stress enough how this experience in a mere 3 weeks has already changed my life. Today, again, WAS THE BEST DAY EVER! hahah so this blog post is going to be all over the place because I am so excited to write down everything that happened!

Today was our Italian Fashion and Culture field trip to a leather factory called "Giorgio Linea." I don't think anyone realized what an incredible place we were about to experience. The leather factory has been up and running for 30 years under creator and owner Barbara Ricchi. The tour started with Barbra's warm greeting at the door welcoming us all in. Our large group of 30 fashion students was then split up into 2 smaller groups. I was sent off to listen to Barbra talk about the company and "My Vintage Academy," which is a recent addition to the company. "My Vintage Academy" is an archive of the last 30 years of work created by the factory and in addition expanding into a company built to provide inspiration for designers. Designers can purchase pictures of archived items and have the option of renting any of them to help with ideas for future designs. The passion she has for her company beamed off of her with every word she spoke to us. Barbra is the definition of a power women and I would definitely love to see more of what she does on a day to day basis! After presenting the company Barbra let us explore some of the vintage archive. There were tons and tons of belts, key chains, and little coin purses (all designer!) we were allowed to touch the products and take pictures of any of them!! (so cool!!) Also positioned in the room was the original Givenchy belt Madonna wore in her Superbowl performance in 2012! Giorgio Linea had handcrafted that belt and received it back for the archive. Many students got to actually try on the Madonna belt as well! After fawning all of these handcrafted designer accessories we were taken back downstairs to learn about how they were made.

We split up into even smaller groups of about 6 and each group was given an artisan to follow around. Our artisans name was Christian. Christian has been training in leather making since he was 15 (so about 20 years). He is the only artisan in the factory that has been trained in making earrings so every pair of earrings is made by Christian. Step by step he took us through the process of the current product he was working on String Ray Leather Givenchy earrings. Yes sting ray!!! Each pair of sting ray earrings takes him about 20 minutes to make. These earrings happened to be the final product and not a sample so in 2-3 months they will sold at Givenchy for 400-500 Euros! AND HE LET US TRY THEM ON!! That is probably about the most expensive and unique item that will ever touch my body. While in the process of making earrings he was also working on leather bracelet prototypes for Givenchy. These prototypes won't hit stores for another year. Christian is an extremely skilled artisan and is considered one of the best. It takes a lot of time to learn what he does and as a result he gets paid very well. Like Barbra, without even saying a word you could tell that Christian had so much passion behind his work and really does love his job. It is a huge accomplishment for him to have gotten to this level of leather making and he is very proud. We asked Christian what his favorite part about the job was and he said working personally with the designers and the challenging aspect of it. He says everyday is a new challenge, a new project and thats what he loves about it. I wouldn't mind trading positions with Christian any day because if like one of the designs that a designer presents he can simple just make one for himself. Today he was sporting a leather Burberry bracelet design that he had made a few weeks ago. We had to have a translator speak for Christian because he barely spoke english but she was able to help us all communicate more and ask any questions that came to mind. Side note Christian also brings his dog to work with him so we had a little puppy following us around the factory as he showed us each process of making perfect leather accessories, and by perfect I mean perfect...the artisans check and re-check every item them make so it displays only perfection. They also have a very high standard of perfection! After going through several machines and tools we had seen a fully completed pair of Givenchy earrings made and a Givenchy bracelet. Christian then proceeded to take us to another part of the factory where the package and stamp on the label of whatever the designer of the product was. It was really cool because they had a boxes of stamps with the different designer labels on them.

Soon it was time for us to make our own leather bracelets. We got the choice of making one of three different kinds of leather bracelets. They were all very simple but was awesome to get the chance to make our own! As the trip was coming to an end Taylor and I decided to go ask Barbra a few questions. We were interested to see if she was going to Milan Fashion week so we asked! Turns our she is considering it but she's very busy so she is having doubts about going...she then proceeded to ask if we would be interested in taking her taking her tickets if she didn't want to go. We just about died right than and there on the spot. We continued to talk to her and before we left wrote down our emails for her to contact us. AHHH I HOPE WE CAN GO!!! Right as we were about to leave Christian said wait and called me back because he had made one of the leather bracelets we had been working on for me! It was a little edgy but so nice of him!! I LOVEE ITALY AND I LOVEEE THE LEATHER FACTORY!!! I would love to be an artisan like them it looks so cool!! I left the leather factory inspired and in awe.

The rest of the day was lazy same old same old eating, booking a trip to Amalfi Coast, and a little bit of hw. Tomorrow morning its off to Pisa!

CIAO!!

Warning excessive amount of pictures